Artist:   Nick Lowe
Song:   "What's Shakin' on the Hill"
Album: Party Of One
Label:   Reprise
Year:    1990

Some songs are so poignant they defy gravity. Their emotional pull can make time stop, allowing feelings to flood the heart until paralysis sets in. And when that happens it's really all over. You know you are in the presence of musical greatness, and there is little to do but try to breathe the rareified air and hope some stays inside you. Nick Lowe is responsible for several all-time gems, but none better than this overlooked sleeper from his lone Reprise release. It came at a strange time in the British rocker's career, before he reestablished himself with the more muted sound of his Yep Roc albums. This ballad could be heard now as pointing the way to that greatness. There is a hushed tone to the proceedings, with Ry Cooder's quivering guitar setting the scene as Lowe slowly realizes the desert island he's living on isn't likely to change. Whether it's class warfare or emotional disability, the singer sees his solo plight in life as an inevitable end that he cannot escape. Lowe's vocal on the line, "The blues is where I do reside" is enough to make the hardest heart dissolve, and should be used in sensitivity classes everywhere. What this classic really does is offer sympathy for anyone who's found themselves on the outside looking in and wondering what  it takes to enter that inner circle. Nick Lowe doesn't have the answer, but he does offer a warm coat to wear while he stands shivering right next to you, wondering where you both went wrong.